The Church
Joseph loaded the injured man into the carriage and set off for Caladon at once.
It was late, but stopping here for the night was better than anything else.
No one voiced the suggestion to rest.
For them, it was better to return to the village as quickly as possible.
Some couldn't hide their anxious expressions.
They hadn't faced the creature directly, but they had seen the Cry Peeper.
Superstition was a very important issue for mercenaries who risked their lives.
So they didn't want to waste time and headed straight for Caladon.
Under the faintly shining moonlight, the carriage moved with quite a racket.
They were hurrying because they carried the spoils of the monster's remains and the camp's loot.
Fortunately, there were no obstacles in their path.
Even if there had been, they wouldn't have been able to stop them.
Just like the mercenaries, Joseph also stayed up all night with his eyes open.
So, racing through the night, they could arrive at the outer gate around dawn.
In the distance, a crowd was waiting in front of the gate, as if waiting for the door to open.
“Halt! St— eh!”
As they approached the outer gate, the guard who was checking the identity of the approaching group noticed Joseph's carriage.
He immediately tried to block the carriage, but soon he was stopped by another guard.
The senior-looking guard approached the carriage and bowed his head to Derek.
Upon closer look, it was the same guard who had checked them when Joseph first entered the city.
“Has the mage returned?”
Unlike before, his polite attitude made Derek scratch his cheek and nod.
Then the guard immediately opened the way.
They could enter without waiting.
“Even when leaving, it's amazing...”
One of the mercenaries muttered as he passed through the gate.
Joseph's name hadn't spread in Caladon for long. Yet they were already treating him like this.
The city's merchant guilds also seemed to be watching Joseph's existence as a mage.
The carriage soon headed to the mansion.
A mercenary guarding the mansion's gate saw the carriage from afar and immediately ran inside.
Soon, Givra came out and greeted the group.
“You've worked hard!”
As Joseph got out of the carriage, Givra handed him a warm tea first.
After taking a sip of the tea, Joseph felt his stiff body relax.
“Shall we go inside for now?”
“No, there's something I need to do first. An injured person appeared.”
Joseph instructed him to move the man to an empty room right away.
An injured person? Givra nodded his head but couldn't hide his puzzled expression.
He called the mercenaries guarding the mansion and had them bring the mercenary with the ankle injury inside.
Then, he explained to Givra about the contract they had divided among the mercenaries.
“Then, are you saying we should divide all the items in the carriage among the mercenaries?”
“Only the monster's remains. The loot is separate. Ask the private soldiers what is loot.”
With that said, he went inside immediately.
Thanks to this, Givra was running around the mansion restlessly from early morning.
It was because Joseph had left almost all the follow-up work to him.
He distributed the monster's remains to the mercenaries who participated in the extermination and moved the loot to the warehouse.
There were some who complained about it, but no one particularly resisted.
The private soldiers had given them the hint themselves, and they had already gained several times more than usual from the monster's remains.
Even excluding the one with the ankle injury, there were no other injured.
At most, there were just some scrapes.
The only one with complaints was probably the greedy one like Lento.
Meanwhile, Derek sent one of the mercenaries to the guild to report Lento's story.
Lento probably wouldn't be able to receive requests for a while.
“Well, since we have this payment this time, there's no need to worry, right?”
The other mercenaries nodded at Derek's words.
As long as they didn't blow all their money on alcohol or women at once, they wouldn't have to worry about money until they returned.
Of course, the reason mercenaries wanted to make a lot of money was mostly alcohol or women, so Lento's expression wasn't bright.
After the noisy follow-up work ended all morning.
After returning, Joseph, who had fallen asleep to recover from fatigue, found Givra.
“How is the injured person's condition?”
“He doesn't seem like he'll die. But are you planning to take care of that mercenary?”
Givra asked cautiously.
It was a natural question.
They had taken the mercenary on the extermination.
It was natural for an injured person to appear, and the mercenaries knew that.
Even if he died, it wasn't the employer's responsibility.
They had hired him with money knowing he might die instead of them.
Rather, they should be grateful at this point since no one has died.
But this mage had brought the injured mercenary all the way into his own mansion.
'This is exactly the kind of person who gets called a sucker...'
As he had felt before, this mage was very kind-hearted for a mage.
When he was threatening, it was hard to even swallow a spit, but when he thought of him as his own person, he went to great lengths.
This wasn't a particularly good trait in this world.
“If Joseph's personality becomes known to the outside world, all sorts of people will flock to him.”
Givra, who had originally been a low-ranking mercenary, knew this even better.
If someone looks like a sucker, how they get chewed up is something he knew well.
He hadn't been instructed by Joseph yet, but he was already worrying about operating the mansion like this.
“...I understand what you're worried about, but it's not that.”
But Joseph smiled faintly and shook his head.
Just like his concern, Joseph had no intention of becoming a sucker.
After all, Joseph had gotten entangled with all sorts of trash in his previous life.
He felt bone-deep that if someone looked easy to handle, they would be eaten.
“Then why are you bringing that person along?”
The injured person could just be sent back home.
As long as the compensation was properly taken care of, recovery was something they had to do themselves.
Of course, looking at the ankle injury, it seemed he might not be able to walk properly again.
“This is something I want to check this time.”
“...?”
Joseph had been thinking of going to the Church.
The start of this extermination was, after all, training in commanding private soldiers, but thanks to this, he could re-confirm what was lacking now.
'Hygiene and medical systems.'
To build the life he wanted, these were essential elements as well.
Here, while humans died easily beyond imagination, there were almost no ways to treat wounds.
If Joseph hadn't instructed, that mercenary might have had his wound fester.
In Valois Territory, the situation wasn't favorable, so he had postponed it to some point.
But this time, it seemed good to learn a bit more about the healing magic he had planned.
“Givra, is there no Church in Caladon?”
“The Church... you mean?”
When Givra heard the word “Church”, his expression furrowed.
“Why such a face?”
“Could it be that you plan to ask the Church for the treatment of that mercenary?”
Joseph nodded his head.
He wasn't bringing the injured person as a simple retainer.
He had intended to meet the priest of the Church using the treatment of that mercenary as a pretext.
“Well, it might be necessary to go directly with the injured person.”
But at that, Givra chewed his lip.
His eyes darting around suggested he was calculating something.
“If you have something to say, just say it.”
“There is a Church. However... honestly, I don't think meeting them would be a very good choice.”
“Why?”
Givra hesitated for a moment and then honestly explained his concerns.
Joseph's current actions make it easy to appear as a sucker, and the Church is the one that most prefers such suckers, he said.
“Moreover, Joseph-nim doesn't have any noble backing yet, do you?”
“...”
Joseph had gotten the cooperation of the Silver Ice Merchant Guild and the Kerbe Merchant Guild.
But there were insufficient aspects as backing for what Givra was saying.
The Silver Ice Merchant Guild was large in scale, but since they only sold ice, that was it.
It wasn't built through connections like other large-scale guilds.
The Kerbe Merchant Guild was originally a small guild, so there's no need to say anything.
The Church probably didn't know Joseph's existence.
But they hadn't tried to contact Joseph yet.
From their perspective, there was no need to do so.
“...Going to the Church first is like bowing and entering.”
Givra said with a worried look.
However, Joseph couldn't help but show a puzzled expression at his words.
“Is the Church a place where they need to be so careful about their stance?”
Joseph recalled the Church and priests from the previous Valois Territory.
The Church in the castle was indeed large, but they didn't seem to have much power.
If anything, it was closer to a fanatic group.
The merchants Joseph had met with the traveling merchants in Malešov were the same.
They were typical 'religious people who care about the weak', dedicated to treating soldiers' wounds.
But if you only hear Givra's words, it doesn't seem like they're going to meet a noble.
“The priests I met didn't have that impression.”
At that, Givra scratched his head for a moment.
“I don't know what other territories' Churches are like, but since Caladon's Church isn't a particularly good place... ”
He couldn't not be worried.
He couldn't let the employer who had finally recognized him go in innocently like a lamb to the slaughter without stopping him.
Unlike Valois Territory, the Caladon Church was actively supported by the merchant guilds.
Regardless of their character, there were definitely priests who had healing magic.
The bishop there used this to do business with the guilds.
“Are you saying they monopolize healing magic?”
“Yes. To receive proper treatment, you have to pay a large sum.”
Even without that, the priests had to pray for a long time to use healing magic once.
Just like mages accumulating mana in their bodies through meditation, they had to accumulate divinity through prayers.
The bishop was one who knew how to utilize this limited supply.
'Of course, I can't complain about it.'
From the perspective of the lower classes, they would have to grovel desperately or somehow bring money.
'Because it's a commercial city, the Church is also not in its right mind...'
Joseph let out a dry laugh at that story.
Then, his gaze suddenly turned to the staff placed on the wall.
He recalled a word from an old combat priest.
'There might be those who want to take it if they see the holy relic.'
According to Givra's words, the bishop here didn't seem like a very decent person.
Then, rashly contacting them would be somewhat risky.
“It has become troublesome...”
If he had known this, he should have asked the priests in Valois Territory a little about healing magic.
'No, what can I do now that it's already passed.'
Joseph shook his head and stood up from his seat.